Patrick Smith
Tuesday 23 October 2007
United Nations Secretariat
New York City
USA
Dear Confidentialers,
A whirlwind trip through New York and Washington this week shows that Africa has moved up the diplomatic and economic agenda - despite the Iraq-Iran obsessions h...
Patrick Smith
Recently in New York,
11 October 2007
Dear Confidentialers,
In those days when grown hacks used to fight over datelines and the scrupulousness of sub-editors ruled, a favorite dateline would start with the words 'recently in...' followed by some interes...
Patrick Smith
27 August 2007
Lagos
Dear Confidentialers,
First of all, a belated apology for the long time, no write. Back at maison Africa Confidential, I've been working with colleagues on a couple of new projects. Firstly, we will be launching a new publication...
Patrick Smith
Black Star Square
Accra
Ghana
Dear Confidentialers,
This is where it all started just over 50 years ago with Ghana's declaration of independence from the British colonial authorities and founding President Kwame Nkrumah announcing his vision of a United...
Patrick Smith
Volume 48 No 12
Paris,
Thursday
Dear Confidentialers,
Here in the city of light, the most dramatic news about last week's G8 summit in Heiligendamm was the release on the internet of a video showing France's new President Nicolas Sarkozy holding a press...
Patrick Smith
20 May 2007
Shangcheng Road
Pu Dong
China
Dear Confidentialers,
It's been a week of supersonic statistics and global asymmetry here in Shanghai, which this week hosted one of the most successful annual meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) to...
Patrick Smith
Luxembourg Gardens
Paris,
France
Dear Confidentialers,
After sending another Africa Confidential to the printers in the smallish hours of Thursday morning, I jumped on a Eurostar on a mission to see President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy spend an uncomfortable...
Patrick Smith
The Occidental Grill
Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington DC
Dear Confidentialers,
Viewed from the reassuringly stolid interior of the Occidental Grill 'Where statesmen dine', it says on the door Washington could be mistaken for a benign provincial city...
Patrick Smith
BBC Studios
Millbank
London SW1
Dear Confidentialers,
Another day, another interview on Zimbabwe. The BBC's excellent Sheena McDonald is quizzing four of us - two journalists and two opposition activists - about what happens next. President Mugabe's re...
Patrick Smith
Place de l'Indépendance
Avenue de Mali
Bamako
Mali
Dear Confidentialers
It is hard to get away from Ghana's founding father, Kwame Nkrumah, this month. Here in the centre of Bamako, a statue of the kente-clad Nkrumah bestrides the grand square like a C...